At Home With...

Concordia colonial fosters child-friendly comforts

Jessica and Marc Benzakein are shown in their kitchen, which has been gutted and renovated.

A large stained-glass light fixture helps brighten the renovated kitchen of the historic home owned by Marc and Jessica Benzakein. The Colonial Revival-style home, built in 1897, will be featured on the Historic Concordia Home Tour on June 18.

Jessica and Marc Benzakein are shown in their kitchen, which has been gutted and renovated.

Marc and Jessica Benzakein's home in the Concordia neighborhood is filled with striking amenities both inside and out.

It has a beautifully carved staircase, French doors topped with transoms, thick and decorative woodwork, a built-in buffet in the dining room, high ceilings,four elegant fireplaces, original hardwood floors and decorative accents on the exterior.

It's furnished with a mix of antiques, pieces that look like antiques, and newer pieces that were purchased purely for comfort.

But it's not one of those homes in which every piece of furniture is polished to a high gloss and precisely accented. Instead some pieces of furniture are more likely to be topped with a toy. And instead of jeweled pillows on beds and sofas, there are blankets and afghans for snuggling.

Here the focus is on creating happy, comfortable spaces for their biological children, Elijah, 10, and Brenna, 6, the four foster children they now have, and the additional foster children they hope to welcome into their home.

Marc said that one of the reasons they purchased their home was that they wanted to foster more children because his wife was in foster care and aged out.

"When I turned 18, I was put on my own," Jessica said. "In my 20s when I was in college, I realized I didn't have a base to return to. It's important to have a stable place to come home to. Family helps to ground you, and people need that. They need a place to return to."

"If you don't have a place to regroup and you are left floating alone, one mistake turns into lots of mistakes, and that's when kids run into problems.

"We're open to adoption or long-term fostering, and we hope to adopt sibling groups. We got into foster care strictly to adopt children who would not be able to go back to their biological parents," she said.

They originally lived in California and then moved to Rhinelander because they wanted to live in a place they felt was more conducive to raising a family. He works in software development, she works in banking.

But for them, Rhinelander wasn't the right fit, as they wanted to live in a city with more diversity.

After looking in various areas of the state they settled on their Concordia home in early 2013. They liked it because of the area's diversity and because it had 6,500 square feet on three floors so it could obviously accommodate lots of children — with a bit of work.

Because the 1897 Colonial Revival-style home was a duplex, they had to make structural changes to turn it into a single-family home.

On the first floor they removed a center wall, gutted the kitchen, redid the bathroom and repainted the entire interior.

They reconfigured space on the second floor, too. There they took out the kitchen and used the existing plumbing to add a laundry room. They turned the rest of the former kitchen space into a playroom.

That floor already had three bedrooms, so they turned the living room and dining rooms into bedrooms as well. One of the original bedrooms is used as an office for Marc, and the bathroom on that floor is being renovated.

But the third floor, which was unfinished attic space, is where the major work was done. There the couple added a stairway and a long hallway, four bedrooms, two bathrooms, another laundry room and a storage area.

The couple recently talked about their home, which will be featured on this year's Concordia tour of homes, and the importance of fostering children. Marc writes about their experiences fostering children on his blog, Twotofive.us,which includes pictures of their renovations.

Q.How is your first floor laid out now?

Jessica: Because we took down the walls that divided the home, our entry hall has a stairway to the second floor on one side. We only use one entry door, but there are still two doors at the front of the house.

We also have a foyer and a front room that was originally called the parlor. By removing the center wall we created a large living room. Part of this room was once a bedroom. We also have a dining room, kitchen, my office, a guest room, bathroom, and front and back stairways.

Q.What changes did you make in the kitchen?

Jessica: We put in granite countertops, a granite-topped island, subway tile on the backsplash and black cabinets. We have full side-by-side stainless freezer and refrigerators, a double oven and a five-burner stove. I cook a lot.

The room also has two large windows with original woodwork, and we kept the original molding, trim and doors in the kitchen.

Q.What other major projects did you do?

Marc: We put in all new windows, a new roof, and we did a ton of electrical and plumbing. We also added new heating and cooling systems on all three levels and tore down the old single-car garage.

Q.What colors did you use when you painted?

Jessica: On the first floor we used all neutrals. But in the bedrooms we let the kids have a say in the colors. In all the bedrooms we painted the room one color, but their closets another color for fun.

On the outside of the house we used five different colors, and people often walk by and ask about the colors. They say they are happy colors. You can't have a happy house outside and not inside.

Q.What are some of the rooms' color combinations?

Jessica: In the baby's room the walls are lime green, and I painted the closet teal. Our room has dark blue walls, a yellow ceiling and a tan closet. One bedroom is burnt orange with a light yellow ceiling, and the closet is the color of a pickle.

Q.What colors did you use on the exterior?

Jessica: Sea foam green with gold trim. Some decorative accents are orange, and under the eaves it's sky blue. We also have some white trim.

Q.Did you add the skylights on the third floor?

Marc: Yes, we added them in two bedrooms. Our bedroom is also on the third floor at the front of the house. We're thinking of adding skylights in there one day, too.

Q.Tell me about some of your antiques.

Marc: On the second floor in the playroom we have an antique cash register from a family that owned a grocery store. It still works. It sits on a base with drawers, and when you hit different buttons different drawers pop open. It weighs a ton.

We also have an antique chest in the dining room, an antique dresser in the first-floor bathroom, and a pump organ in the living room.

Q.Who collects clocks?

Marc: I do. I have 30 to 40. The one in the front room is from a hotel in Japan and is over 100 years old.

Q.What outside spaces do you have?

Marc: We have a front porch we can access from the second floor. We also built a new two-car garage behind the house that we painted the same colors as the house. It has a flat roof that we use as a patio.

Q.How many bedrooms and bathrooms did your house originally have?

Marc: Six bedrooms and two bathrooms. We now have nine bedrooms, plus the two offices that could be bedrooms, and we have four bathrooms.

Q.Any projects left to do?

Jessica: For three solid years we felt like the contractors lived in the house. We joked about setting up bedrooms for them here. Now, they're still here but they're coming and going. We're redoing the bathroom, and they're still finishing up some detail work in the attic. We hope they're done by the tour.

Marc: In the basement we plan to build a big rumpus room and have an area for exercise equipment.

Q.Do you know any of your home's history?

Marc: It was built by John Roth Jr. Roth's trademark residential designs generally had strong ornamental exteriors and grand entrances. Meyer Bros. was the builder, and the original owner may have been C. H. Strong.

Do you, or does someone you know, have a cool, funky or exquisite living space that you'd like to see featured in At Home? Contact Fresh home and garden editor Nancy Stohs at (414) 224-2382 or email nstohs@journalsentinel.com.

If you go

What:26th Historic Concordia Home Tour — the Living Museum, Every House Tells a Story: A self-guided tour of 12 historic homes in the Concordia neighborhood.

Other events: A silent auction from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., a scavenger hunt, and a costume contest for individuals dressed in 1800 to 1900 clothing. Also a tintype photo booth producing authentic tintype portraits free for tourgoers.

Do you, or does someone you know, have a cool, funky or exquisite living space that you’d like to see featured in At Home With? Contact Fresh home and garden editor Nancy Stohs at (414) 224-2382 or email nstohs@journalsentinel.com.